Colorado Fires

Radioflyer99 wrote:
We have a trip planned in a couple weeks heading to CO for the fall colors. How bad are the fires and smoke in the Lake City, Leadville and Grand Lake areas.

I'm in Loveland and the smoke has been terrible for several days here. Can see/taste/smell it everywhere. Advisories have been posted and last night on the local news/weather segment, they were pointing out that smoke from all of the fires was starting to push and be seen in the midwest area around Chicago.

If you're coming in early to mid-September, you're going to be just a bit early. Colours start to pop toward the latter part of September heading in to October. But with the current drought conditions, that could all change.

Also, at least for the Cameron Peak fire (the one closest to Grand Lake), fire behaviour is difficult to predict since it's so weather dependent. Extreme conditions have been forecast for that fire for at least the next week to 10 days. Fire movement has been toward the south and east. Remote sections of RMNP have been closed. IF the fire were to move into Rocky, it would have a lot of fuel available as there's an abundance of beetle kill stands on that west side of RMNP, the area north of Grand Lake.

Keep an eye on news reports, as fires can change dramatically and rapidly, depending on weather and conditions. One report over the weekend said the Cameron Peak fire would likely not be anywhere near containment until the first big snowfalls of the season, which would be into October/November timeframe.